We asked Labor and the Coalition (we already know the Greens want more).
Calls for a Seniors Dental Benefits Scheme are growing louder as the election draws closer, with peak bodies saying there’s widespread support and major need.
The Council on the Ageing (COTA) Australia and the Australian Dental Association (ADA), along with others, have been urging Labor and the Coalition to commit.
The ADA says its annual study of 25,000 people found 76% supported the introduction of a Seniors Dental Benefits Scheme.
“If that’s not clear proof that most Australians are behind the seniors’ scheme and want to see it put into action, then nothing is,” said ADA president Dr Chris Sanzaro.
The scheme proposed by the ADA would cover up to $1052 over two calendar years in dental expenses, indexed yearly, for holders of Commonwealth seniors health cards, pensioner concession cards and health care cards who are 65 or older.
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It would be administered along the lines of the Child Dental Benefits Schedule, which currently provides $1132 every two years for check-ups, x-rays, cleaning, fissure sealing, fillings, root canals and extractions.
The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety recommended the establishment of a Seniors Dental Benefit Scheme in 2021, and so did the Select Committee into the Provision of and Access to Dental Services in Australia in 2023.
Responding to the latter (in July 2024), the government said:
“The Government notes this recommendation. … The National Dental Reform Oversight Group, represented by each state and territory and the Commonwealth, is currently conducting analyses to consider improved access to public dental services for priority groups, including people in residential aged care and older Australians living in the community. Options will be presented for Health Ministers’ consideration during 2024.”
According to Parliamentary Budget Office costings done in November 2023, a seniors dental benefits scheme like the one suggested by the ADA and COTA would cost around $3.4 billion over the three years from 2024-2027 ($1.3 billion in 2026/27).
Back in 2019, when Bill Shorten was ALP leader, the then-opposition party went to the election promising $2.4 billion from Medicare to pay for $1000 of dental care every two years for anyone holding a Commonwealth Seniors Health Care Card or on the aged pension. The payment would cover check-ups, x-rays, periodontal treatment and dentures and run along the lines of the Child Dental Benefits Scheme.
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Labor lost that election, and the ALP campaign review said that while the promise, among others, “was meant to be the payoff from Labor’s tax policies, it attracted headlines such as ‘Shorten spends $230 million per minute’ in his 30-minute speech.
“These announcements were too late to sell on the ground and played directly into the Coalition’s narrative of big, risky spending that would have to be paid for with big economy-wrecking taxes.”
When asked what the ALP’s position on a Senior Dental Benefit Scheme was now, the health minister’s office didn’t reply directly about the scheme, and shadow health minister Anne Ruston’s office didn’t reply at all.
Minister Butler’s office pointed out that the budget contained $107.8 million in 2025-26 to state and territory governments to support public dental services for adults and is partnering with them to develop a new National Oral Health Plan for the next decade. The response also noted the $7.8 billion in private health insurance rebates that support access to private sector dental services.
As for the National Dental Reform Oversight Group which was considering the options following the Senate committee recommendations for the SDBS, the minister’s office said the group “has been tasked with developing options for sustainable and longer-term dental funding arrangements that better meet community needs, particularly those of older Australians and First Nations people”.
“The National Dental Reform Oversight Group’s advice will be considered at a future meeting of all Health Ministers.”
The minister’s office also noted that there are items under the Quality of Care Principles 2014 Schedule through which aged care homes provide certain services, including some dental.
Mr Butler recently told ABC Sydney that the ALP has “an ambition over time to bring dental into Medicare” but “it’s not going to happen anytime very soon”.
“It’s really an historical anomaly that it’s not in there. I think Bob Hawke just took the view he was fighting on so many fronts to introduce any system of Medicare. He was fighting the doctors. He was fighting the Liberal Party. He didn’t think he could fight the dentists as well, who at the time were implacably opposed to the idea of dental going into Medicare. So, it has been an anomaly….
“Over time, we’d love to see it be able to come in, but it would be very expensive, a very big job to do, and my focus right now is on strengthening the Medicare that we currently have…”
A pilot program has been running in collaboration with Central and Eastern Sydney PHN in the suburb of Maroubra, treating 70 people with significant dental disease.
“It’s a great example of how this scheme would work as it would be rolled out across the country,” said the ADA’s Dr Sanzaro.
“We’ve now got the statistics and we’ve now got a trial that shows that action can be taken,” said Ms Patrica Sparrow, the CEO of COTA Australia.
The ADA survey found that affordability was the main reason that 55% of Australians over 65 delayed dental treatment.
Almost half reported “debilitating” problems, such as mouth infection, facial swelling, and tooth and gum pain, compared to 36% of the general population. Everybody is delaying going to the dentist, but more so in this age group, their survey found.
“They can’t get to the dentist regularly because they can’t afford it and so their mouths become a battleground of pain and infection management,” said ADA president Dr Chris Sanzaro.
One in three surveyed said they were concerned if they did go, they would only find problems that they couldn’t afford to fix.
“Some end up in the Emergency Departments – the ADA has found that 16,000 seniors were admitted to hospital for treatment of painful dental issues in 2022-23.
“That figure is expected to rise to 22,630 by 2027-28, representing a 42% increase from an already unacceptable level. It’s a health trend that worsens by the year.”
Dr Sanzaro said this was “an inefficient use of taxpayer funds” and the scheme would “greatly assist in reducing this unnecessary burden on the rest of the system”.